‘Glimmer of Hope’; Networks Hype ‘Earthquake’ Dem Wins, Predict Blue Wave in 2026

On Wednesday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC were riding high and drunk on power after seeing their preferred candidates sweep with socialist Zohran Mamdani’s “astonishing surge” in New York City and Democrats Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia romping to huge wins, declaring this a GOP “bloodbath” and “glimmer of hope” for Democrats in 2026 with “a guidebook” to create a blue wave.

As always, ABC’s Good Morning America led the way in liberal sycophancy. It started from the outset with co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos making sure to brand Sherrill and Spanberger as “centrist Democrats” in contrast to “democratic socialist” Mamdani.

Chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky was enthralled with Mamdani triggering “a political earthquake” that “energized” the city:

 

Katersky eventually pivoted to Sherrill and Spanberger, hailing the latter for having “struck a bipartisan tone during a time of deep nationwide division,” ignoring her support for men in women’s locker rooms and boys in girls sports.

He also celebrated California’s far-left gerrymander: “And in California, voters change to the state’s congressional map to heavily favor Democrats, countering Republican deeds restricting in Texas and other states[.]”

Moments later, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce happily reported Tuesday’s results left “no question” they were “a rebuke of this President” and voters “soundly rejecting his policies.”

And to triple down, Bruce added her liberal allies “have the momentum going into the midterms.”

Later in the show, GMA spoke to all three and gave them easy softballs, which we broke down here.

NBC’s Today had a few moments of their own.

Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles touting Mamdani’s “stunning” “political shockwave” as having arrived after “grassroots campaign focusing on rising prices, including proposals like free buses and childcare and city-owned grocery stores, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who...said Mandami would wreck the city’s economy, also focusing on his past criticism of Israel and previous calls for defunding the police, which Mandami says he no longer supports.”

On 2026, Nobles maintained Tuesday’s “results provide Democrats momentum heading into the 2026 midterms,” but emphasized “no race last night will have as big an impact as the vote in California, and that’s where voters overwhelmingly approved a plan for mid-decade redistricting which could net Democrats as many as five seats in next year’s election.”

After Steve Kornacki worked his magic on the big board, Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker hyped “Democrats’ message on affordability resonated, a rejection of President Trump’s handling of the economy” and that one GOP source “call[ed] it a bloodbath last night.”

Focusing on the midterms, Welker tried to have it both ways by arguing “New York is obviously its own unique electorate” and candidates who “had their own baggage, so it’s hard to draw too many national conclusions.”

 

 

But in the same breath, she said Mamdani signals a desire for “change” and “a message on affordability” in the electorate and left Democrats “feeling bullish now heading into the midterms” with “a glimmer of hope last night.”

CBS Mornings was also part of the celebrations and wish-casting. Senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe insisted “[t]hese off-year elections are a good indicator of the country’s political mood, and last night’s victories for Democrats could be an early sign of the party strategy, or at least what it should be going into next year’s midterm elections.”

O’Keefe described Mamdani as “the first Muslim to hold the job” as NYC mayor and a “self-proclaimed democratic socialist focused on lowering costs, promising rent freezes and free buses” and, in his victory speech, “struck back hard” against Trump by “dismiss[ing] the President’s threats to withhold federal funding or deploy National Guard to protect the city.”

Pivoting to “moderate[s]” Sherrill and Spanberger, he conceded Mamdani drew “outsized attention” versus their victories.

And, on California’s gerrymander, O’Keefe merely said it was a “plan to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats, a response to what Republicans did in Texas at the request of Trump.”

Chief Washington analyst Robert Costa closed out the election coverage in the A-block with more way-too-early predictions: